[AVS] HDMI Nes

[leods]

Really want to know about compatibility with unlicensed titles and other games that tend to not get a thorough playtest. Castlevania III is a good start, but let's see if it can handle the funkiness of Sunday Sunday, Pesterminator, Action 52, etc.

It's not like you're going to play action 52 right?

 

"play"

[Andromeda Stardust]

This hasn't been bumped yet? The AVS has shipped and many of us have received it. Needless to say, it is awesome.

I haven't gotten my ship notification and I ordered it within 30 minutes of going on sale. Part of the issue was that I bundled "launch" games with mine and Brian is waiting on the boxes and manuals for the launch games.

 

Had I known there might be a delay, I would have ordered the AVS and the launch games separately.

[Atariboy]

Since this isn't emulation, I'm not sure that the usual problem titles are likely to bring any potential issues to light here.

 

I don't know how it compares to modern emulators (I don't use them), but what I can say is it seems to replicate the NES experience nearly 100%. Full speed, no glitches, audio is perfect (even the Japanese Castlevania III), scanline options for people who don't like the crisp pixel-perfect emulator look, etc. Oh, and zero input lag (that's kind of a big one).

Why only nearly 100%?

 

Any minor issues, or just playing it safe or referencing something like the lack out of necessity of NES Zapper support?

Edited September 19, 2016 by Atariboy

[Austin]

Really want to know about compatibility with unlicensed titles and other games that tend to not get a thorough playtest. Castlevania III is a good start, but let's see if it can handle the funkiness of Sunday Sunday, Pesterminator, Action 52, etc.

 

It handles just about everything. This is the real deal.

 

Since this isn't emulation, I'm not sure that the usual problem titles are likely to bring any potential issues to light here.

 

Why only nearly 100%?

 

Any minor issues, or just playing it safe or referencing something like the lack out of necessity of NES Zapper support?

Because I don't have 700+ carts to test and I don't want to talk entirely out of my ass.

 

From my understanding, every single licensed and unlicensed game should work fully based on what RetroUSB has said. It seems some users have run into slight issues with weird custom homebrews that have odd or unusual mapper requirements (check the RetroUSB Facebook page for reports). I haven't yet heard of any normal game released back in the day not functioning.

[AtariBrian]

The most important question that should be asked is ... do you have to blow in the carts

[Andromeda Stardust]

Since this isn't emulation, I'm not sure that the usual problem titles are likely to bring any potential issues to light here.

 

Why only nearly 100%?

 

Any minor issues, or just playing it safe or referencing something like the lack out of necessity of NES Zapper support?

Certain games with "green stripe" edge connectors may have difficulty reading in the AVS cart slot due to shallow connector!

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=166841

[Shawn]

Certain games with "green stripe" edge connectors may have difficulty reading in the AVS cart slot due to shallow connector!

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=166841

 

Easy enough fix is to sand that shit off.

[Newsdee]

how much power does it use? I'd expect it to be even lower than a Raspberry Pi.

 

Also if somebody is willing to open theirs, I'd be curious as to which size of FPGA is in there (just get the exact model number printed on it)

Edited September 20, 2016 by Newsdee

[Andromeda Stardust]

Easy enough fix is to sand that shit off.

Yeah, because every collector loves filing material off the bottom of his/her carts...

 

how much power does it use? I'd expect it to be even lower than a Raspberry Pi.

 

Also if somebody is willing to open theirs, I'd be curious as to which size of FPGA is in there (just get the exact model number printed on it)

At least one reviewer has done a teardown already. I don't think they got the part numbers though...

[Austin]

how much power does it use? I'd expect it to be even lower than a Raspberry Pi.

 

Also if somebody is willing to open theirs, I'd be curious as to which size of FPGA is in there (just get the exact model number printed on it)

Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX9. My Life in Gaming has an AVS review and they show some shots with the case off.

 

I don't know how much power it consumes, but RetroUSB has said that whatever it does is very little.

[Newsdee]

Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX9

That's the same chip as the ZxUno, which was my guess for it. At 9K Logic Elements it's more than double the size of the FPGA inside the NES Everdrive (4K LE if I'm not mistaken).

 

This capacity doesn't affect performance in any way, but gives an idea of whether something else could be added to it. The NT mini has a much bigger chip to have room for the 1080p upscaler.

 

Regarding power consumption, it's objectively a better machine than the original if it performs identically at lower power requirements. That's an area where I expect any FPGA console to beat emulators.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Newsdee

[Gentlegamer]

The only thing that didn't quite play right was Famicom Sky Destroyer (AVS has a Famicom slot, too)... but I think it's because I need to clean the pins.

[Great Hierophant]

Easy enough fix is to sand that shit off.

That strip prevents contact, but if you sand it off you will just have bare non-conductive substrate. You would need to extend the pins aomehow.

[romeoteknik]

I haven't gotten my ship notification and I ordered it within 30 minutes of going on sale. Part of the issue was that I bundled "launch" games with mine and Brian is waiting on the boxes and manuals for the launch games.

 

Had I known there might be a delay, I would have ordered the AVS and the launch games separately.

 

Same here, ordered the full set, still hasn't shipped yet.

[Austin]

Update from RetroUSB a few hours ago on NintendoAge. Addresses the cart connector issues:

 

USPS supplies - they finally started delivering the correct boxes! Not yet near the quantity I ordered but I think that problem is mostly done. Too bad it happened at the same time as a week of knee doc visits! Everything without launch titles is likely to ship in the next 2-3 days if they keep it up. International priority is the questionable one.

Mac Scoreboard - problem identified, thanks wifey who keeps her laptop updated unlike mine. Still need more testing but the app should be done this week. Haven't heard of any big problems with the Windows vers but it might get the same version bump.

Cart connector - this one is funny/sad. I figured out this problem years ago but at some point it was lost when making the new connector. All the tooling is being remade anyways (needs bigger side guides) so all the contacts will be made longer. The connector is on a plugin board so it will be a cheap/free upgrade part when its done in a few months.

Launch titles - still waiting for boxes/manuals, don't think @qixmaster has sent a tracking num yet. One part comes early and another part comes late!

[Andromeda Stardust]

USPS supplies - they finally started delivering the correct boxes! Not yet near the quantity I ordered but I think that problem is mostly done. Too bad it happened at the same time as a week of knee doc visits! Everything without launch titles is likely to ship in the next 2-3 days if they keep it up. International priority is the questionable one.

 

Dangit! I ordered four games with mine...

 

 

 

Cart connector - this one is funny/sad. I figured out this problem years ago but at some point it was lost when making the new connector. All the tooling is being remade anyways (needs bigger side guides) so all the contacts will be made longer. The connector is on a plugin board so it will be a cheap/free upgrade part when its done in a few months.

This is good news though...

[Gentlegamer]

I haven't encountered the cart connector issue, but great news, AVS really is very well made so it will be an easy fix.

 

It's like we're dealing with Bizarro Mike Kennedy.

[Shawn]

Yeah, because every collector loves filing material off the bottom of his/her carts...

 

 

I don't think anyone is really worried about a $5 Tetris cart, espeically if they are looking to actually play the game.

 

That strip prevents contact, but if you sand it off you will just have bare non-conductive substrate. You would need to extend the pins aomehow.

 

There are extensions to the cart pins all the way to the bottom of the pcb under the green mask.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

There are extensions to the cart pins all the way to the bottom of the pcb under the green mask.

 

This is not true. The cart pins have a short lead of about 2mm on the edge that won't make reliable contact. Then you have an additional 2mm of green mask which is just bare PCB (no copper) underneath. I pulled 8 such carts off my shelf so I know.

 

There is a lengthy topic posted about these "green stripe" games on the NintendoAge thread.

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=166841

 

The "green stripe" games seem to occur at random and span several different mappers and revision numbers. There is a theory going about that the leading edge of these PCBs are the result of a manufacture process whereby large perforated PCBs are produced with multiple game PCBs contained on each, then the individual boards are broken apart at the factory and populated with chips. The "green stripe" games may be boards that happen to be on the leading edge of the PBC before it is split into individual games. The manufacture process is similar between different mappers and board layouts produced at the same facility around the same time period, so it is random chance whether a given copy of a game has the "green stripe" found only on the bottom edge of the production PCB. We do not know the original dimensions of these uncut PCBs during production or how many individual game PCBs each produced, so it is difficult to quantify the likelyhood or probability that a specific game cart got the green stripe or not as it rolled down the assembly line.

[Austin]

If you are really worried about it, there's always this:

 

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

If you are really worried about it, there's always this:

 

 

I tried telling the guys on Nintendoage this, but they wouldn't listen. One user seemed hell bent on filing down 40 carts from his personal collection so that they would be playable on the AVS, and this was after Brian made the announcement that drop in replacements would be available in a few months for any AVS console owners who complained about carts not working.

 

What's easier? File down 40 cartridges, or use a Game Genie or Famicom adapter until the replacement connector arrives???

[godslabrat]

I'm perplexed at the idea of filing carts. Seems the worst possible solution, even if a new connector weren't just on the horizon. I'd sooner go back to my old NES than file my carts...

[Andromeda Stardust]

I'm perplexed at the idea of filing carts. Seems the worst possible solution, even if a new connector weren't just on the horizon. I'd sooner go back to my old NES than file my carts...

Yeah, it's gotten petty for sure. What started off as an informative thread quickly devolved into arguments over cart mutilation:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=166841

 

From page four of the thread:

Wait, so Bunnyboy is going to release a fix? GODDAMNIT. I already filed down the case and PCB on 40 of my NES games!

I canonly hope this guy was joking...

[+Gemintronic]

It's not like you're going to play action 52 right?

 

"play"

 

Unfortunately, yeah. I've got a thing for unlicensed carts. I have yet to have anyone confirm if Action 52 or other oddball carts work.

[Newsdee]

I have a couple of questions for those that got one: if you use a Famicom-to-NES adapter, would a Famicom cart fit and allow the lid to close entirely? Alternatively, can the lid be removed?